Lignier-Michelot Lignier Virgile Clos St. Denis Pinot Noir 2007

The Lignier-Michelot 2007 Clos St.-Denis smells of smoky black tea, iris, distilled pit fruits and their pits. Seductively tender in texture - in striking contrast with its 2008 counterpart - this favors metaphorically dark flavors of plum, cherry, salted meat stock, game, black tea, peat, and humus. A slight catch of tannin does not significantly mar its long finish, and I feel confident that this can be savored anytime over the next 6-8 years, perhaps longer.

Vintage: 2007

2007 was the year that saw California's wine industry pick up once again, after a troubling couple of years. Indeed, all across the state of California, fantastic harvests were reported as a result of fine weather conditions throughout the flowering and ripening periods, and Napa Valley and Santa Barbera wines were widely considered amongst the best in the world in 2007, with Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes packing in all sorts of fine and desirable features in this year. South Africa, too, had a much-needed fantastic year for red wines, with Pinotage particularly displaying strong characteristics, alongside the country's other flagship red wine grape varietals.
Over in Europe, France had another fine year, especially for white wines. Champagne wineries were very happy with their Chardonnay harvests, and the Loire Valley and Graves in Bordeaux are proclaiming 2007 to be a memorable year due to the quality of their white wine grapes. For French red wines, Provence had their best year for almost a decade, as did the Southern Rhone. However, 2007 was most favorable to Italy, who saw high yields of exceptional quality across almost all of their major wine producing regions. Tuscany is claiming to have produced its best Chianti and Brunello wines for several years in 2007, and Piedmont and Veneto had a wonderful year for red wines. For Italian white wines, 2007 was an extremely successful year for Alto Adige and Campania. Germany also had a very good 2007, with Riesling displaying extremely dry and crisp characteristics, as did Portugal, where Port wine from 2007 is said to be one to collect.

Varietal: Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is one of the planet's most widely grown and enjoyed grape varietals, and thanks to the popularity of the key wines it is associated with â€“ Burgundy and Champagne â€“ it has successfully spread from its native home in France to much of the wine producing world. Pinot Noir means 'black pine' in French, and this refers to the extremely dark, inky color of the fruit, and the fact that it grows in conical bunches, resembling a large pine cone. It has long been revered for its wide range of refreshing, summery flavors, and the fact that it produces red wines of a beautiful garnet color and light body. More recently, sparkling wines made exclusively with Pinot Noir have been extremely popular, and the orchard notes found in the fizzy 'blanc des noirs' wines mark out just how versatile this grape varietal really is. Despite being notoriously difficult to grow, it isn't hard to see why this grape is now found in vineyards all over the world, as it is synonymous with romance and decadence, quality and fantastic flavor

Region: Burgundy

In the beautiful French wine region of Burgundy, there is archaeological evidence to suggest that there has been viticultural activity going on for at least two thousand years. To add to this, there are early written records praising the exceptional wines produced in this region dating back to the 6th century, making Burgundy one of the oldest established and still operational wine regions in the world. The region is most commonly associated with fine red wines, with Pinot Noir being the primary grape varietal grown on its rolling hillsides and gently sloping valleys. However, Chardonnay grapes are also produced in abundance for the production of their fine white wines, with both varietals benefiting greatly from the region's warm, hot summers and the superb soils which make up the terroir.

Country: France

France is renowned across the globe for its quality wines and the careful expertise which goes into making them, but what is truly remarkable about this relatively small country is the vast range of wines it produces in such huge amounts each year. Not only are the finest red wines in the world said to come from the beautiful regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, but elsewhere in the country we find the Champagne region, and areas such as the Rhone Valley and the Loire, whose white wines consistently receive awards and accolades by the plenty. This range is a result of the great variety of climatic conditions and terrain found in France, coupled with generations of wine makers working within single appellations. Their knowledge of specific terroirs and grape varieties has, over time, perfected the production of wines within their region, and the end results continue to impress the world to this day.

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